Accessing a camera connected to Raspberry Pi

[shanepisko]

How would one connect to a camera attached to the pi? would this be done via javascript codes that add webcam support to your projects? Also could the Processing.js libraries be used with coder?

[jmstriegel]

Not out of the box, but....

Take a look at this project: https://github.com/troyth/node-raspicam/

I think you could add that module to the package.json, then make a CameraLib project that surfaces that into a simple api that you can use to pull jpgs from in your other apps.

[shanepisko]

Awesome, thanks! Ill try this out

[shanepisko]

So if I install raspicam via npm I will still have to add it to package.json? How do I got about doing that? Sorry I'm very new to all of this stuff. I just received my camera module, got it hooked up and taking photos via command line. I tried installing raspicam but it did not work and said that I might have the wrong version of node.js

Any help is greatly appreciated

[macb]

Hi @shanepisko, any success?

[miniBloq]

Hi! This may help. You need to install the following (please do a backup of your SD card first):

• To work with the raspicam as a webcam (video camera) device (installing UV4L drivers): wget http://www.linux-projects.org/listing/uv4l_repo/lrkey.asc && sudo apt-key add ./lrkey.asc sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

  Add there the following line: deb http://www.linux-projects.org/listing/uv4l_repo/raspbian/ wheezy main Then: Ctrl+X Save

Then: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install uv4l uv4l-raspicam sudo apt-get install uv4l-raspicam-extras

• To verify the driver:
  • If installed, this should show the manual: man uv4l
  • Check if video0 device exist: ls /dev
• To avoid the (ugly) preview window follow these steps:
  • If there is an /etc/init.d/uv4l_raspicam.sh file, then:
  • Open the /etc/init.d/ directory as root (with the menu option in the File Manager at the LXE):
  • Edit it and add the following parameter to to the line which loads the driver: --nopreview
  • More data:
  • http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=61834&p=495588
• Then install https://github.com/troyth/node-raspicam/:

npm install raspicam

I don't remember if I had to do more changes.

To make a test from Coder, create a new app and add the following code at the end of Coder's NODE tab. It seems to be working just find:

---

var RaspiCam = require("/home/pi/node_modules/raspicam");

var camera = new RaspiCam({ mode: "video", output: "/tmp/video.h264", framerate: 15, timeout: 5000 // take a 5 second video });

camera.on("started", function( err, timestamp ){ console.log("video started at " + timestamp ); });

camera.on("read", function( err, timestamp, filename ){ console.log("video captured with filename: " + filename + " at " + timestamp ); });

camera.on("exit", function( timestamp ){ console.log("video child process has exited at " + timestamp ); });

camera.start();

---

Cheers! Julián